The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on June 4 approved Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk’s once-weekly semaglutide drug as a treatment for obesity, a condition that affects nearly 70% of American adults.

Shares of Provention Bio Inc. plunged in trading after a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee narrowly supported the company’s diabetes prevention drug, teplizumab.

Newly announced topline results from Eli Lilly’s SURPASS-4 trial program show the company’s investigational diabetes agent, tirzepatide, significantly reduced blood glucose levels and body weight better than insulin glargine in adult patients with type 2 diabetes. 

Metabolic comorbidities, including obesity and type 2 diabetes increase the risk of morbidity and mortality in patients who contract coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). But findings published in the journal Nature show that not only are patients with diabetes more at risk of more severe outcomes, patients without diabetes who develop Covid-19 may also be at a higher risk of actually developing diabetes following recovery. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration greenlit AstraZeneca’s Farxiga (dapagliflozin) under priority review for the treatment of chronic kidney disease in patients at risk of progression with or without type 2 diabetes.

In a roundup review of scientific studies recently published, a study out of RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences and the HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) in Ireland further defined the association between comorbidities and poor outcomes with Covid-19.

The Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is effective at preventing symptomatic and severe disease in people with some chronic illnesses, like diabetes and heart disease, the biggest real-world study showed on April 22.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted vTv Therapeutics’ TTP399 Breakthrough Therapy designation for type 1 diabetes.

AstraZeneca’s diabetes drug Farxiga (dapagliflozin) failed to reach endpoints in a Phase III study as a potential treatment for hospitalized Covid-19 patients at serious risk of developing complications.

Lilly

Eli Lilly’s Phase III SURPASS-2 clinical trial shows that treatment with tirzepatide, a once-weekly dual glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist, is associated with superior reductions in body weight and blood sugar compared with injectable semaglutide in adults with type 2 diabetes.